Maputo, 17 December, 2025 / 4:02 pm (ACI Africa).
Pope Leo XIV has appointed Bishop Lucio Andrice Muandula of Mozambique’s Catholic Diocese of Xai Xai Local Ordinary of Chimoio Catholic Diocese in the Southern African nation.
The appointment of Bishop Muandula to oversee the Diocese that became vacant on 15 November 2022, following the transfer of Bishop João Carlos Hatoa Nunes to Maputo Archdiocese as the Coadjutor Archbishop, was made public by the Holy See Press Office on Wednesday, December 17.
Born on 9 October 1959, in the Catholic Archdiocese of Maputo, Bishop Muandula was ordained a Priest of the same Metropolitan See on 14 May 1989 after completing his philosophical and theological studies at the Interdiocesan Seminary of St. Pius X in Maputo.
The holder of a doctorate in biblical theology from the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome was appointed Bishop of Xai-Xai on 24 June 2004, followed by his episcopal ordination on October 24 of the same year.
Bishop Muandula was among the African Bishops who were instrumental during the Synodal process, which is now in the implementation phase.
